Boing Boing pal Erik Davis sends us this exclusive bit of insider insight into the Hollywood adaptation of Philip K. Dick's surreal SF novel "A Scanner Darkly":
"This spring, I had the opportunity to read and consult on Richard Linklater's screenplay for Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, which is set to start filming this July. As I love many of Linklater's films, this was a great honor, although much less funny than the New Yorker's description of me as a "Dick expert." Expert or no, I can tell you that I have every reason to believe that Linklater's film will be what Dickheads everywhere have been waiting for: the first "real" "authentic" PKD movie. While the film updates the historical vibe from paranoid 70s to paranoid 00s, the script is dark and tart, funny and faithful. Nearly all the dialogue is drawn from the novel, and the few changes sharpen Dick's themes rather than squelch them. Linklater has kept the story dark, and haunted by rumors of God.
As has been reported, Keanu Reaves will play Bob Arctor, the Orange County narc who goes schizo after being assigned to spy on himself. Linklater has been planning this project for years; it was Reaves' interest in the story that finally got the ball rolling. As has been already noted, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Rory Cochrane round out the cast, though it also needs to be mentioned that these are some of the most famous druggies in Hollywood. Actually, I don't know anything about Rory's personal habits, but he sure spouted convincing cannabinoid bon mots in Dazed & Confused.
During my time at Linklater's pine-forested getaway pad outside of Austin, which features a pagoda, a huge stone tower, and many pinball machines, I got to meet the genius team whose digital rotoscoping helped make Waking Life one of the few masterpieces of the new millennium. These are definitely the guys you want to bring Bob Arctor's scramble suit to life."
